Brighouse Arts Festival 2018 promises to be bigger and better than ever

Organisers of the sixth annual Brighouse Arts Festival have released the dates for the 2018 festival as well as this year’s festival theme. Last year’s event had record breaking attendances and the organisers hope to build on this with a bigger and better event.

The festival will take place from October 6 to 14 and the aims to become Calderdale’s first ‘Festival of Communication’.

John Buxton one of the festival producers, said: “Our festival will focus on communication, bringing people together, tackling elderly isolation and youth involvement in the arts in Brighouse.

“Our focus will provide literature, theatre and music with performances, workshops and talks that are accessible and most of all entertaining.”

The grand opening performance as well as the closing acts are already booked - but it’s all under wraps until the grand launch in the late summer. Organisers promise that this year the festival will bring in bigger artists to Brighouse.

The festival is looking for volunteers to support the event. Steven Lord, chairman of Arts for Brighouse, said: “We are looking for people with bold ideas, artist and project makers to help develop our exciting and innovative festival.

“We are looking for help in many different ways such as volunteers, monetary support, artists’ proposals and ideas to make our 2018 festival bigger and better than ever before. We know from last year what impact the festival has on building stronger communities.”

“The Brighouse Arts Festival runs purely on volunteers,” said Matthew Harrison-Lord, Festival Director. “This year we need more volunteers to steward events, getting audience feedback, and helping in every way possible”.

Brighouse Arts Festival is also looking for corporate sponsors and donations to help fund the project. “We provide activities for local people, particularly those over the age of 60 who are experiencing isolation as well as increasing participation for young people under the age of 18 to be involved in the arts in Brighouse so it’s a great project for local businesses to get involved with.”

The Brighouse Community Cinema has been particularly successful at meeting these aims and will continue with an exciting programme of films on the third Thursday of each month throughout 2018.